One of the most important problems in the development of information technology in financial management is the selection of appropriate software products. At the same time, the variety of financial management tasks necessitates the use of various software tools, which often differ significantly in purpose, functionality, environment used, etc.
We at WebSailors divide the software used as a financial decision support tool into the following classes:
• integrated enterprise management systems;
• table processors;
• packages for solving fundamental analysis problems;
• packages for solving technical analysis problems;
• statistical and mathematical software packages;
• artificial intelligence systems (AI).
It should be noted that this division is very arbitrary, since some software tools can combine the properties and capabilities of several selected classes at the same time, while others can be focused on solving only narrow specialized problems.
Such systems integrate on the basis of modern information technologies management processes for various activities of the enterprise, including supply, production, marketing, investment, finance, accounting, control, personnel management, etc.
Thus, they allow you to coordinate and control the work of the enterprise as a whole.
As a rule, integrated systems have similar features and implement the standard basic functions of managing an economic object. All of them are focused on application in heterogeneous computer networks, implemented on the basis of the client-server architecture, allow real-time information processing to a large number of users, have a friendly graphical interface, and provide integration with other popular software products at the data exchange level.
The software of such systems necessarily includes special modules or subsystems that support financial management of enterprises.
Despite the fact that the range of software products for fundamental analysis is quite wide, there is no universal tool that can satisfy at least average requests from specialists. This situation is primarily due to the exceptional diversity and complexity of the tasks that arise.
Therefore, at present, when solving problems of fundamental analysis, specialists are forced to use several types of software products, which can be conditionally divided into:
• packages for the evaluation and management of investment projects;
• packages for analysis of the financial condition of enterprises;
• packages for financial planning and budgeting;
• programs focused on solving specific problems.